Efficacy of eBird data as an aid in conservation planning and monitoring

Abstract

One of the world's largest citizen science projects is eBird, a database that has been used primarily to address questions of bird distributions and abundance over large spatial scales. However, addressing finer-scale questions is also possible, depending on survey coverage and whether assumptions and limitations are matched to the scale of inferences. Our objective was to determine if the eBird database could be used to develop estimates of bird abundance and diversity comparable to those from standardized shorebird surveys. We compared a year of standardized shorebird surveys by trained observers at Snook Islands Natural Area located in Palm Beach County, Florida, to a year of eBird observations from the same site. Total species richness derived from eBird (25 species) was higher than that from standardized surveys (20 species). Similarly, we found the Shannon diversity index calculated from eBird was higher (2.81) than the same index calculated from standardized surveys (2.21; P < 0.001). The higher diversity and species richness may reflect the greater effort of eBird participants (35,289 person-hours) compared to our standard surveys (2126 person-hours). We found only a slight difference in parameter estimates between data obtained from eBird and from standardized surveys. Potential use and value of eBird as a tool for land managers and conservationists may be greater than currently realized, but studies conducted in a wider range of ecosystems and locations are needed to develop generalizations.